Quarry lands severance approved

Plans to build two high rise apartments on the former quarry lands, northeast of Gerrard and Victoria Park, have been given the go-ahead at the Ontario Municipal Board.

GCD Trustee Limited (the Conservatory Group) applied to sever an 11,907 square metre section of its property to build the first phase of its plan on the site. The severance allows two 24-storey towers on a three-storey podium base, with 369 residential units. The total development, if approved and completed, would have 1,455 total units.

Several parties appeared at the OMB hearing in October, including representatives from the Concerned Citizens for Quarry Lands Development (CCQLD) and several other area residents. CCQLD members have long argued that 1960s-era zoning approvals have no place in modern planning; however, zoning bylaws do not have expiration dates, and the OMB had previously amended the bylaw in 2010 to accommodate the plan for high-density housing on the site, which would be across the street from a neighbourhood of one- and two-storey detached and semi-detached houses.